Federer has no empathy for young Baghdatis

The top-ranked Federer was to be going for his seventh Grand Slam title on Sunday, facing a player who began the tournament ranked 54th in the world and was a 500-to-1 shot to win the season's first major.

Asked after his emphatic semifinal win over Nicolas Kiefer if he could remember being nervous before his first major final, Federer said the circumstances were entirely different.

He'd spent a lot of time, he said, waiting for his chance -- spending a period ranked just outside the top 100 and another just outside the top 10.

Baghdatis, on the other hand, has been an overnight sensation.

"I went into my first Grand Slam final being sort of a favorite against (Mark) Philippoussis, I thought," Federer said. "So I guess that is already different circumstances -- he's not going to be the favorite."

Not only won't Baghdatis be the favorite, but he's a big underdog against a player who has won all six Grand Slam singles finals he's contested -- starting with a straight-sets victory over Philippoussis at Wimbledon in 2003.

Baghdatis, a 20-year-old Cypriot who was junior world champion and Australian Open junior champion in 2003, has lost all three of his previous matches against Federer.

Though he reached the final by defeating three seeded players -- No. 2 Andy Roddick, No. 7 Ivan Ljubicic and No. 4 David Nalbandian -- history isn't on Baghdatis' side. In six previous Grand Slam men's finals involving the top-seeded player and an unseeded player, the top-seeded guy has won every time.

Federer lost only four matches last year. Until his defeat by Nalbandian at the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, where he was hobbled by an ankle injury, the Swiss star hadn't lost in 24 straight finals.

He won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last season, and went into the Australian Open final with a 51-match winning streak on hard courts -- though he did have to survive a couple of tough five-set matches over Tommy Haas and fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko to reach the Australian Open semifinals.

Federer is on an 11-match winning streak, including a straight-sets win over Baghdatis at Doha earlier this month.

"In two weeks, he's improved incredibly," Federer said of Baghdatis. "We're all surprised he got this far ... but he beat quality players and totally deserves to be in the final."

"He's relaxed enough not to get too worried about all this stuff, it seems. I have to expect him to play a good match."

Baghdatis has been embraced by fans in Melbourne, a southern Australian city with a large Greek population. But Federer also is a popular figure in Australia, in part because his coach, Tony Roche, is an Aussie.

A win by Federer on Sunday would put him halfway to Pete Sampras' record 14 Grand Slam singles titles, but he said such marks are secondary.

"(I) think about the next match, not what I still have to achieve to be a legend or a great," he said. "I have a long way to go -- I know that."

In the women's final, Amelie Mauresmo had to wait seven years between chances at a Grand Slam title -- and in the end it was much easier than she'd imagined.

Mauresmo was leading Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-1, 2-0 when the Belgian walked to the net and told the umpire she could not continue because of stomach pain.

"Walking back to my chair, I realized the tournament was mine," Mauresmo said. "The way I reacted would have been different if the match went to the end. But the joy is here ... I've been waiting for this a long time."

Henin-Hardenne was the first woman and only the second player in the Open Era -- which started in 1968 -- to retire from a Grand Slam final. Stefan Edberg retired against Ivan Lendl in the 1990 Australian men's final.

"It's been such a long time, and yet I still don't know what to say," Mauresmo told the crowd. "Maybe we found the way, maybe we'll try to keep going."

Henin-Hardenne said anti-inflammatories she'd taken for a sore shoulder had troubled her all week.

"I was feeling so sick and I couldn't stay longer on the court," Henin-Hardenne said. "I'm sorry I couldn't find a little bit more."